Research Engineer - Voice Intelligence

Pocket is a device that records and organizes spoken thoughts and conversations. It can create summaries, action lists, and mind maps in many languages. The device includes studio microphones, contact microphones,…

Location: San Francisco, CA
Company size: 5–10
Posted: 3d ago
Via: Yc

Section II · Premium ProfileMembers only

01Comp band & equity packageLocked
02Seniority & experience requirementsLocked
03Interview process & rubricLocked
04Hiring manager & team contextLocked
05Growth trajectory in this roleLocked
06Offer & decision timelineLocked

Start free trial Sign in

7-day free trial · $25/mo · cancel anytime

Research Engineer - Voice Intelligence · Pocket

View company profile

Job title: Research Engineer - Voice Intelligence
Job location: San Francisco, CA, US
Job listing URL: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pocket/jobs/TdcrUTp-research-engineer-voice-intelligence
Job description: Pocket is building a category-defining platform for ambient intelligence. Voice is the highest-signal interface we have — and we’re looking for a research-minded engineer to push what’s possible with voice end-to-end: capture → understanding → real-time experiences → evaluation. ### **What you'll own** * Invent and ship improvements to our voice stack: diarization, VAD, noise robustness, transcription quality, speaker ID, and post-processing. * Build new voice-powered product capabilities: better memory, better meeting/voice summaries, better action extraction, better personalization. * Run tight research loops: define metrics, build eval sets, iterate on models/algorithms, and productionize what works. * Improve real-time performance and reliability: streaming pipelines, latency budgets, fallbacks, and graceful degradation. * Partner closely with product + design to translate voice capabilities into features people feel immediately. **What success looks like** * Step-function improvements in voice quality and perceived intelligence (measured and felt). * A clear evaluation harness (offline + online) that prevents regressions and accelerates iteration. * Voice features that ship reliably at scale with predictable latency. ### **What we're looking for** * Have 6–10+ years of experience shipping production systems with strong technical ownership. * Are strong in applied ML/research engineering _and_ can turn prototypes into robust product. * Understand audio/voice fundamentals (signal processing basics helpful) and modern model/eval workflows. * Care deeply about performance and reliability. **Nice-to-haves** * Experience with streaming audio pipelines and real-time systems. * Experience with LLM post-processing, structured extraction, and evaluation. * Experience building tooling for labeling, dataset curation, and QA. ### **What we offer** * Work directly with us and learn fast * Direct impact on how the company operates day to day * High-trust, high-responsibility environment * Competitive compensation

View job listing ↗

The Saturday Briefing

Get the Saturday tech briefing

New company profiles, funding moves, and who’s hiring across the market — every Saturday morning.

Where this role is based

San Francisco, CA

Loading map…

Pocket headquarters

San Francisco, CA

Company size

5–10 employees

Founded

2024

Total raised

$500,000

View company profile ↗

Funding rounds

Pre Seed$500KMar 24, 2026

Investors

Y Combinator

Industries

Software Companies